Sara pretended to cry, dropping her head. Isaac got such a grin on his face as he wandered over to her. I wanted Sara to see it so I pretended to cry as well. Isaac walked over to me and put his hand on my cheek.

“Daddy,” he said seriously, “No crying at the party.”

Since it’s the radio version there’s an edited line that says “I don’t give a sh!” We’ve heard it dozens of times. This time something clicked.

Besh: “Daddy, what was he going to say?”

Me: “Oh, I think he was just saying ‘Shhhhh!’ like he wants people to be quiet.

Besh: “Oh.”

Long pause.

Besh: “I thought he was going to say ‘shit.’”

On the Isaac front we’ve crossed a major threshold–Iz has gone from speaking a single word to entire sentences. It happened one afternoon last week and was almost like a switch was flipped. First he’s barking out words one at a time and then he suddenly starts stringing them together. Neither Sara nor I remember it being this sudden with Besh.

First, Isaac was playing with one of his Sesame Street toys making a plastic Elmo sing. Suddenly he laughs and says, “He’s so funny!” Sara and I were floored and just looked at each other. Then a bit later he was bouncing/rolling a ball around the living room. He picked it up and came into the kitchen.

Me: “Isaac, do you want to have a snack?”

Isaac: “No, I catching ball.”

But he’s still a very young 2 so while the words and sentences are coming in we still have trouble understanding him sometimes. Yesterday I was driving with the boys and Isaac was pointing out the window.

Isaac: “Daddy! Haws! Haws!”

Took me a while.

Me: “Oh, do you see a house, Isaac?”

Isaac: “Yeah!  Haws!”

“That’s right!  But that’s not our house.”

Isaac paused, looked out the window, then muttered: “I know.”

Uh oh.

While trying to convince him that inside was the place to be, Besh calmly walked over to Isaac, turned back to the house and ran into the garage screaming.

Besh: “Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!”

Isaac, seeing his big brother do this crazy awesome game, did the same and ran after him.

Isaac: “Aaaahhhhh!”

As Isaac ran inside, I said, impressed,

Daddy: “Wow. Thanks, Besh!”

Besh shrugged.

Besh: “Works every time.”

Mommy: “Besh, do you know what ‘beshert’ means?”

Besh: “No, what?”

Mommy: “It’s Yiddish and it’s where we got your name. It means that when something is so special and so amazing that the only explanation is that it was meant to be. So when we first saw a picture of you in Mommy’s tummy, Daddy started calling you the Beshert Bean because you looked like a bean. And then we called you Besher after we thought and thought and thought. Because you were so special you were meant to be with us.”

Besh gets up out of his chair to go cuddle with Mommy. Then he looks up.

Besh: “And where did Isaac come from?”

Daddy: “Bah. Isaac’s a second child. We both liked the name.”

Mommy: “Daddy! Tell him where we got Isaac’s name!”

Daddy: “Besh, what letter does Isaac’s name start with?”

Besh: “I!”

Daddy: “That’s right! And that’s the same letter as Idel. Do you know who Idel was?”

Besh shakes his head.

Daddy: “That was Doccy’s real name.” (Doccy was Sara’s grandmother who passed away earlier this year)

Besh: “Oh, so it’s the same letter.”

Daddy: “Exactly.”

Besh: “Daddy! Do you know what else starts with I? iPhone!”

Mommy and Daddy laugh.

Besh: “Oh, and iPad too! So he was named after them too!”

“So we’re going to go pick up Besh now.”

“Besh?”

“Yeah.”

“Besh.”

“Yeah.”

“Besh. Yeah. Besh.”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah.”

“Besh. Besh. Yeah.”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah.”

Fortunately, this was the other 1 time.

Besh has had a great time at his new school, don’t get me wrong. But he is 5 and there’s bound to be things to work on. We’ve had our share of being over excited and listening less than necessary, but ultimately it’s been a good transition.

Still, when you hear those words all parents will do that slight intake of breathe. I did it just hearing second hand. But the rest rocked.

What Besh was doing, and still is doing, is conducting daily singing and dancing shows for some of the upper elementary school kids (a few years older than him). It’s a mix of songs from Les Mis, Bruno Mars, and Black Eyed Peas. And I imagine the lyrics are a good 60% accurate. But it’s pretty funny that he’s been doing it every day. He hides behind bushes, announces the show, then comes out while several kids watch him sing and dance. Appropriate that we find out this week as tonight he and Mommy and Nonni are at the So You Think You Can Dance tour. Hopefully he stays off the stage tonight.

Besh’s performing has apparently inspired some of the other kids to also sing or dance. I can only imagine.

Clearly he gets this from his mother.

One positive note was when I took Isaac with me to go pick up dinner. I was in serious need of caffeine so I hit the Starbucks drive-through on the way. Isaac has seen this drive-through a few times in his short life (I admit I’m hopelessly addicted) and recently we’ve even been able to order him the same drink as his big brother (kid’s milk with sugar-free vanilla syrup) if there are enough hands in the car to transfer the milk from the Starbucks plastic cup to his sippy cup.

On this ride, there were not enough hands (and he’d just had a drink) but that wasn’t going to stop him. As I pulled up to the ordering speaker and rolled down my window, I hear the following scream from the back seat.

“Hi! Milk! Isaac!”

So there ya go, not quite 22 months old and he’s already ordering at the Starbucks drive-through. Parent of the Year Committee, you have my number, I’m expecting your call.

True dat.

“Uh huh.”

“You know who’s getting rain today?”

“Who?”

“New York City. And Emerson.” (she’s in Boston) “And Miss Aimee.”

“You mean Nicaragua?”

“Huh?”

“Oh, I meant Connecticut.”

“Right. Same thing.”